Health industry strives for national approach to growing e-cigarette phenomenon

Health industry workers and academics are working on a national approach to the growing phenomenon of e-cigarettes, with some concerned they are not as harmless as widely believed.

E-cigarettes are vaporisers through which liquid nicotine can be ingested and are sometimes promoted as less harmful than smoking.

Professor Ron Borland from Cancer Council Victoria says they work rather like an electric jug.

"They work by a battery-powered device turning on a little heater - really a miniature electric jug - which heats up the liquid and the propelene gycol creates a thin mist which is like the mist which is used in theatre," he said.

At talks held in Melbourne on Wednesday by government-funded VicHealth, speakers warned of the unregulated industry overseas which is pitched at young people.

The meeting also discussed the possible long-term side effects of using e-cigarettes or vaping - turning liquid into a mist and inhaling it through an e-cigarette.

E-cigarettes that contain nicotine are promoted as less harmful than smoking traditional tobacco cigarettes, but health experts disagree about how dangerous this new fad is.

Experts split on effects of e-cigarettes

Dr Dorothy Hatsukami from the University of Minnesota backs the view that e-cigarettes can play a role in the minimisation of traditional smoking.

"It is less harmful because there's a lot of combustion products in cigarettes so when you burn it they have a lot of harmful constituents. With e-cigarettes it's not burned," Dr Hatsukami said.

Others like Professor Mike Daube from Curtin University are not so sure.

Part of the confusion is we don't have the evidence base to tell us whether these devices are going to benefit consumers or be harmful to consumers.

Jerril Rechter, VicHealth CEO

"There's nothing terribly new about e-cigarettes. We've seen so many miracle cures for smoking, we've seen a long history of tobacco industry products that are supposed to be safe or safer," Professor Daube said.

However the use of e-cigarettes that do not contain liquid nicotine is viewed as relatively benign by some like Professor Borland.

"All of the evidence from around the world is that there's no acute health risks associated with doing that because it's not an addictive product," he said.

So new are e-cigarettes to the market that research into their long-term health effects does not exist.

Jerril Rechter, VicHealth's chief executive, says there is confusion about them in professional circles, hence the need for the talks.

"Part of the confusion is we don't have the evidence base to tell us whether these devices are going to benefit consumers or be harmful to consumers," Mr Rechter said.

E-cigarette industry booming

It is a growing industry; some estimates expect the global e-cigarette industry will reach $23 billion within a decade.

"Some of the projections from Wall Street are that the e-cigarette market might exceed conventional cigarettes in the next decade or two," Dr Hatsukami said.

In Australia e-cigarette laws vary from state to state, but Mr Rechter says while it is legal to buy vaporisers, it is not legal to buy liquid nicotine.

"Liquid nicotine is illegal to purchase in Australia and so it's coming in predominately via online sales," he said.

"And you can buy it online if you have a medical certificate, though there aren't too many doctors around who are going to grant that."

But in April the Supreme Court of Western Australia prevented their sale in the state.

The court ruled that e-cigarettes - even if they did not contain nicotine - still breached the Tobacco Control Act, which prohibits any "food, toy or other product" looking like a tobacco product.